The social imperative : race, close reading, and contemporary literary criticism / Paula M.L. Moya.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moya, Paula M. L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--History and criticism.

American fiction.

American fiction--Social aspects.

Race in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (223 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the context of the ongoing crisis in literary criticism, The Social Imperative reminds us that while literature will never by itself change the world, it remains a powerful tool and important actor in the ongoing struggle to imagine better ways to be human and free. Figuring the relationship between reader and text as a type of friendship, the book elaborates the social-psychological concept of schema to show that our multiple social contexts affect what we perceive and how we feel when we read. Championing and modeling a kind of close reading that attends to how literature reflects, promotes, and contests pervasive sociocultural ideas about race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, Paula M. L. Moya demonstrates the power of works of literature by writers such as Junot Diaz, Toni Morrison, and Helena Maria Viramontes to alter perceptions and reshape cultural imaginaries. Insofar as literary fiction is a unique form of engagement with weighty social problems, it matters not only which specific works of literature we read and teach, but also how we read them, and with whom. This is what constitutes the social imperative of literature.

Contents:

Introduction : schemas and racial literacy

Racism is not intellectual : the dialogic potential of multicultural literature

Not one and the same thing : the ethical relationship of selves to others in Toni Morrison's Sula

Another way to be : vestigial schemas in Helena Maria Viramontes's "The moths" and Manuel Muñoz's "Zigzagger"

Dismantling the master's house : the search for decolonial love in Junot Díaz's "How to date a browngirl, blackgirl, whitegirl, or halfie"

The misprision of mercy : race and responsible reading in Toni Morrison's A mercy

Conclusion : reading race.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780804797030

080479703X

OCLC:

930024233